If you close your eyes and listen to “Volcano Man” — the first single from the upcoming Netflix movie Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga — you may think Rachel McAdams sounds a lot like Melodifestivalen alum Molly Sandén. And you wouldn’t be wrong. Aftonbladet has confirmed through Molly’s record label that she is in fact singing the song while Rachel mimes.
The song is listed on Spotify as a duet between the actor Will Ferrell and a singer named My Marianne. It appears in the first trailer for the film, which dropped at the end of last week and which was broadcast during the Australian special Eurovision 2020: Big Night In! and during an ad break in France, among other places.
But as it turns out, My Marianne is the middle name of Molly Sandén — the Swedish star you’ll all remember from Junior Eurovision 2006 and Melodifestivalen 2009, 2012 and 2016. Her last two Mello songs “Why Am I Crying?” and “Youniverse” remain fan favourites.
The inclusion of Molly in the film suggests producers really want their fictional song contest to slay. As you’ll all know by now, Billboard chart-topper Demi Lovato has a significant role in the film, portraying an “angelic” singer named Katiana.
“Volcano Man” — very clearly a parody! — speaks of myth and legend, all set to Will Ferrell’s heavy panting and eventually a disco beat. It tells the story of Volcano Man, a heroic figure and guardian of love. Spirits seem to guide Rachel, errr Molly, toward her destiny:
Woke up at night, I heard floating chords,
They guided me, to the highland fjords.
Above the clouds
On a mountain peak
There he sat
And he began to speak
The tongue-in-cheek video melds ethno-folk, melodrama, out-of-place costumes and the sudden appearance of a keyboard — elements that wouldn’t be out of place at a national final or indeed Eurovision itself.
On May 15 Will Ferrell appeared on The Graham Norton Show in the UK via Zoom. He discussed the seriousness of his research and his inspirations.
“I mean we really owed it to Eurovision and the fans to make sure it was well observed,” he said. “So many of the Eurovision songs can be silly — but they’re catchy. That’s what we were aiming for. Fire Saga has some appropriately good bad songs.”
He then named several songs that inspired him. These include Germany’s 1979 act Ghenghis Khan. “What’s more appropriate than singing about the conquest of Genghis Khan,” he said. “I mean look at those outfits. It’s amazing.”
His most literal inspiration is Mariya Yaremchuk — she of hamster wheel fame — also from 2014.
“That is something we lifted directly and put in the movie. We kept thinking about something when Fire Saga is singing their song ‘Double Trouble’…we need to do something like the guy in the hamster wheel we saw. The next thing you know the props team is making a huge steel wheel for me to run in. I was lowered about fifty feet down into the ground in a massive hamster wheel, but I’m glad we did it.”
Do you think Molly will voice more songs? Are you excited to stream the complete soundtrack? Let us know down below!
Yoouuuuuuuniverse!!!
Molly already has worked with Netflix, her song Rosa himmel was heard often in the Netflix drama series Störst av allt 🙂
Correction, not her song really, she just sang a cover of it, but she did a really good job though.
The funny thing is that this would definetly get top score from the public jury vote in the real ESC lol
not a chance, this gives me euro neuro/no prejudice vibes with a hint of Schlage
I never thought you were this good to actually predict which artists will perform in the future! Molly Sandén performing in 20012? Wow! 😉
Why her and not a singer from USA, Iceland or so? Something stinks here, Sweden is everywhere. They conquered Eurovision already with their jury votes & now this?
Yeah MF 20012! That was lovely memories :-p
Prefer 2016 🙂
This feels like they definitely did their homework.
Molly Sandén has a great voice and some great songs, like this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMjDne_Z4Gs